Trade Aid

Making a World of Difference

Making a world of difference

Trade Aid - Little Bag/Big Difference

PROJECTS

Support for ongoing projects has continued unabated in 2018 and now into 2019, further establishing the influence that Trade Aid UK has been able to give to important relief programmes worldwide. Much of this has been enabled by the continued sale of Trade Aid UK Granulated and Caster Sugar through Tesco Stores and online at Ocado together with the sale of ethical travel insurance through its partner www.travelandinsure.com. The use of external aid agencies and charities has been instrumental in us being able to reach the remotest parts of the globe where often the needs are greatest. The individual aid projects supported by the Trade Aid UK Foundation can be viewed by simply scrolling up and down the project panel on this page and clicking on the project that interests you.

Primary School Build Programme

As a continuation of our support to SEED Madagascar's school building programme, Trade Aid UK has matched funding provided by the Guensey Overseas Aid and Development Commission to build 2 new classrooms at the Lanirano Primary School at Fort Dauphin, Madagascar in 2018/19. This continues the long standing school construction programme which Trade Aid UK has been associated with over the last 8 years.

Madagascar is one of the least developed countries in the world, ranking 158/188 on the UNDP Human Development Index (UNDP, 2016). Symptomatic of the country’s underdevelopment is insufficient educational infrastructure; put simply, there are not enough classrooms in Madagascar to provide education for all children, resulting in low completion rates (UNICEF, 2015).

Furthermore, school sanitation infrastructure is often poor or nonexistent, and thus generally insufficient to meet basic sanitary needs (WHO/UNICEF, 2015).

These problems are epitomised in Lanirano Primary School, which desperately struggles to provide safe learning spaces for its 424 students. In order to cope with lack of space, the majority of year groups share classrooms, doing just half-days of lessons. Only students in the final year study full days. Outside the classroom, Lanirano Primary School lacks adequate sanitation facilities, with all existing latrines essentially unusable due to disrepair or misuse.

Adding to this problem is a lack of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) knowledge amongst pupils, resulting in many students practicing open defecation on or around school grounds.

To address these issues, Project Sekoly will provide two new fully-furnished classrooms, a three-cubicle latrine block and WASH education sessions at the primary school. Adding 120 new classroom places will directly benefit 240 children currently forced to share just two cramped classrooms. Additionally, the new latrine block and WASH sessions will provide a safer environment for the children, equipping them with the basic hygiene knowledge and infrastructure necessary to prevent disease. More broadly, Project Sekoly supports impoverished children to gain a quality education and progress through school by reducing the number of missed school days.

SEED was initially established as a Scottish charity, Azafady, in 1994 and became a registered charity in England and Wales in 1999. SEED’s basic aim is to alleviate human poverty whilst protecting a biologically rich but greatly endangered environment by empowering the poorest people of the region to meet their basic needs and establish sustainable livelihoods. If you would like to know more about SEED Madagascar and its other projects and volunteer programmes, then you can do so by logging onto their website at www.seedmadagascar.org